March 26, 2024

Inspired by Iowa

THE MEAL

(Click on the links above to jump to that part of the post!)

If you were to ask me to picture a typical farmer’s dinner, this is pretty close to what I would imagine. It made me think of Sunday dinners with my grandparents, and was mostly made with cheap, easy-to-find ingredients, if not stuff I already had in my pantry! The mashed potatoes, salad, and scotcheroos were already favorite recipes in my repertoire, and now the stuffed pork chops are right up there with them! I would absolutely make this again for a family dinner sometime.

STUFFED PORK CHOPS

Iowa is the leading producer of pork in the United States. Over 1/3 of all hogs are in Iowa, coming from over 5,400 farms! Iowa claims the pork tenderloin sandwich as their famous food, but I obviously stuck to my Indiana loyalty and made it for that meal instead. There are so many other ways to cook pork, and I wanted to try something different here, specifically using thick, bone-in pork chops to represent “Iowa Chops.” Often called “Porterhouse Chops” outside of Iowa, the thicker, bone-in chops became famous in Iowa thanks to the Iowa Porkettes—women farmers who promoted the chops during the 1970s.

I kept seeing comments about how Iowa food has no flavor, but that definitely wasn’t the case with this recipe! I try not to eat a lot of pork and have only made pork chops a couple of times, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. The honey, apples, and corn gave it such a sweet and vibrant flavor, and the glaze almost caramelized it. Having the bone in gave it a rib-like texture. I loved it! I was sad that I didn’t make more!

MY FAVORITE MASHED POTATOES

I couldn’t find much about iconic Iowa sides—the main and dessert seem to be the highlights. Iowa is known for sweet corn, and I saw lots of jokes about how an Iowa meal would just be corn, with a side of corn, and corn for dessert. But I saw a few suggestions that pork chops are eaten with mashed potatoes and salad, which is what we usually had as sides for Sunday dinners growing up, so I went with it.

This is my favorite mashed potato recipe. I make it for every holiday, and usually don’t even both to make gravy because it’s so good on its own! I get compliments EVERY TIME. It’s so simple, but the technique (courtesy of Natasha’s Kitchen) of drizzling in hot milk and then adding the butter 1 Tbs at a time while whipping them results in the creamiest, butteriest, fluffiest mashed potatoes ever. They went perfectly with the pork chops, as I knew they would.

GREEN SALAD

Like the mashed potatoes, this salad isn’t necessarily representative of Iowa, but it’s one of my favorite sides. I like crunchy salads, so my go-to toppings are grape tomatoes, cucumbers, and red onions, dressed with a simple mix of 3 Tbs olive oil, 1 tsp minced garlic, 1 Tbs lemon juice, 1 tsp Dijon mustard, and salt and pepper. It’s enough to give the salad a little spicy mustard flavor without overpowering the taste of the veggies.

SCOTCHEROOS

Okay, now back to something that IS representative of Iowa. Scotcheroos!

The first documented recipe for scotcheroos was on a Rice Krispies cereal box in the 1960s. Nobody seems to know who actually came up with the idea, crediting it to Kellogg’s as a whole. Mid-century cooking trends used lots of on-the-box recipes combining different packaged foods. It’s unclear why scotcheroos took off in Iowa specifically, but the recipe is undeniably tied to the state, and can be found in Iowa bakeries.

I don’t really care why they’re Iowa-specific; I’m just thrilled that they showed up in the recipes for this challenge! I LOVE scotcheroos. We always called them O’Henry Bars growing up (no idea why). They’re so easy to make but are so rich and make a great crowd-pleasing dessert. I’m a sucker for chocolate, peanut butter, and butterscotch, so combining the three to make a creamy, crunchy, salty, sweet dessert makes this one of my all-time favorites.

Another popular dessert in Iowa is rhubarb pie, which just confirms to me that I was always meant for the Midwest, and that Utah is a melting pot for comfort foods. This was hands-down one of my top favorite State-inspired meals so far!